Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-11-25
FRIDAY. NOVEMBER %, 1887.
Qualifications of Voters.

QuGlihcaOOnS OF voters.
We were on the point OF character
izing the following paragraph from the
New York Herald as insolent but have
come to the conclusion that it was not
intended 10 be insolent but is only an
other proof of what has been so often
said of the New York papers, that what
ever else they know they are not learned
in the law. We quote the Hcrdtd as
follows
"Mr. L. S. Powell writes the HCrdh
from the National Soldiers Home, Nir-
ginia, complaining that there are two
thousand veteran soldiers in thai iusti-
tuition who. under the State laws o IT.
GINA. are denied the right of suffrage.
An appeal is made to us to invite public
opinion as to what seems manifest de-
NAL of the right of suffrage"
What has public opinion " in New
York or any other State, or all the other
States, to do with the requirements of
the Constitution of Virginia? That in
strument prescribes the qualifications of
voters ard every man who is entitled to
vote is eligible to any Office within the
gift of the people" except as rc.trcted
in the same Constitution. The C0usti-
tuition reads as follows:
Every male citizen of the United
States twenty.One years old, who shall
have been a resident of the State twelve
months and Of the county. city, or town
in which he shall offer to vote three
months next preceding any election shall
be entitled to vote for members of the
General Assembly and all officers elected
by the people PrOridcd that no officer,
sOidicr seaman, or marine Of the
URitcd Suites army or nary shat BE-
considered q resilient Of his state Gy
reason Qf being stationed therein"
We do not know that the veterans in
the National Soldiers Home are disfran-
chised by the words in daIics; but we
will state that those or equivalent words
have been in every Constitution of Vir-
GINA that has been framed since 1929,
and were also in the Constitution framed
by the convention of 1S29-'30. 1t was
put into our present Constitution by the
UNDERWOOD Conventional Republican
body, or rather body large majority
of whose members were not only north
ern carpet baggers, southern scalawags,
and ignorant negroes, but unauthorized
Republicans and northern sympathizerS.
Mr. POWELL does not tell the public un-
der what provision of the Constitution
"the veterans" are disfranchised. All
he says on that point is what follows:
al and many others here would like to
have the Hcrdid's opinion upon a point
in our situation which seems unsatisfac-
tory 10 us. There are two thousand or
more veterans in this branch of the Sol
diers' Home who are not allowed to vote.
/ am informed that a law of the State of
Virginia denies them this right, and that
this is the bar that shuts us out from the
polls"
We will therefore add that in addition
to the persons DISTINGUISHED by the words
in italics quoted above. several othu
classes of persons are DISTINGUISHED.
These are idiots lunatics persons con-
victed of bribery in any election, en-
bezzlement of public funds, treason,
felony, or petit larceny; and persons
who have fought or tried to fight duels.
There is the whole story. Now let the
Herald tell us wherein the Constitution
is defective.